My new favorite picture

Like I said in my last post, I love this girl and I love seeing her new expressions!  Check it out!

Beach day with friends!

Last week a friend and I got together for a day at the beach.  Our first beach day since last summer!  It ended up being a slightly overcast day, but we made the best of it and got caught up on life!  Check out a few pics of Andrea.  In case you didn’t know or haven’t heard me mention lately… I LOVE KIDS and I LOVE photographing them as they play.  Their personality is SO evident in play and during the early years a lot of their learning takes place as they play.  Love it!

Friday’s Thoughts

When you get your photos taken, what is your expectation of how many photos you will get in return?  Ten?  Fifty?  A hundred?  Why?  Why do you have that expectation?

I love taking pictures and might give you one hundred pictures.  <smile> But in all honesty, it is all about the ONE photo for me.  When everything lines up just right and I can capture the moment completely… I love it.  My heart sings and I am happy if I get just one shot that says it all.  This last engagement shoot was amazing!  I had not only one “the ONE”, but two.

When processing the photos though, this one felt more like the “ONE”:

Many more awesome pictures to come!  But if these were the only two – it would be enough for me!

Friday’s Thoughts

I spend a LOT of time thinking about photography, looking at photographs, reading about photography and photographers.  I get so inspired by the great stuff out there and wonder about the process, wonder how long it took for that photographer to get so good, wonder what their journey looked like.  In all of my pondering, one of my favorite things to fall back on is the blog post I read by Nick Onken talking about “The 10,000 Rule” (from Malcolm Gladwell’s book).

It reminds me that life is a process, that art is a process, that it doesn’t happen over night.  We know these things in our head, but when the rubber meets the road, how do we live?  Are we out there 10 hours a day EVERYDAY shooting hoops in order to make it to the NBA?  Or do we shoot hoops once a week for about an hour, but wish we could play in the NBA?

Happy Friday.

Friday’s Thoughts

A thought….when was the last time you had your family photo taken?  Do you even remember when the last time was?

This photo is from many, many years ago!  Two of the kids are married now and the twins are as tall as their mom.  But this photo represents a moment in time where the family was together, enjoying each other and enjoying the beauty of San Diego.  The 3,300 miles that normally separates this family didn’t that day.

Why is this important?  Why is this photo being pulled from the file?  In memory. Grandma Saundra passed away unexpectedly this last week and the family (my dear, dear friends) asked me for any pictures I had.

Take time to love those around you.  Take time to build memories.  Take time to take photos.

A day in the life of a four year old – Sacramento Children’s photographer

It was just another Friday afternoon around the house.  Katrina was working on a worm bin for her environmental studies class and of course the little ones wanted to see what it was all about:

Momma and baby sis checking on the worms too:

Off to the flower garden with Grandma to cut some sweet peas for the house.

And then there is this little girl whose name means wild princess and she is a stinker!  She reminds me a little bit of me when I was younger, just wanting to do whatever brother is doing.  She won’t even walk on her own and yet has a fit when she can’t ride a bike like her brother!  Oh dear!  God bless her momma with patience!

The Sarah version of crawling.  (On a side note…it took me a few minutes to be able to get this shot because she is on the go and doesn’t look at the camera very often.  But I was so happy when I finally caught her looking my way for one second!)

NOT a fan of hats!  Too bad momma said she has to wear it at the pool this summer.  Sarah, dear Sarah, your momma is more stubborn than you, so I suggest you just listen and wear the hat like a good girl so you can go swimming this summer.

Aw, a happy face!

Painting time!!!  With Auntie Des!

Love the concentration and focus!

Love you Caleb!

t.i.m.e. spells love to this one

Love languages.  Have you heard of them?  Love is expressed and received through different ways and it is not necessarily the same for each person. This child KNOWS, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I love him when I spend time with him because that is one of the ways he receives love.  I love Caleb dearly and happen to think that love is spelled t.i.m.e. too, so we get along just dandy!

We spent about an hour sitting out on the driveway putting together a helicopter and an airplane and then painting them.  Together.  Just the two of us.  (No baby sister trying to rain on his parade.)  t.i.m.e. is love.

My new favorite picture:

More later…